So, the latest mistake I've made is letting the poor boy sleep in my bed. It gets cold at night, even with the heat on...sometimes I find him on the floor, uncovered by anything except for his jammies. I put him back in his bed, cover him up, and everything's okay.
Well, sometimes in the pre-dawn hour (around 5 - 6:30 or so) I would take him into my bed just to warm him up. Oooops. Last night he started fussing at 12:30 or so, and then really cried when I wouldn't take him in to my room. He just said "UP! UP! UP!" to go into my room. I put him back down and covered him up...but he woke up several more times last night, and I had to let him cry it out, like when he was an infant. That does not make for very peaceful sleep on daddy's part. I'm also feeling guilty for letting him cry like that...but I can't have him in my bed! He especially likes to put his icy cold feet up against my legs, which also does not make for a good night's sleep for daddy. Even when his feet aren't cold, he puts him feet up against me...This has only been going on for about 3 nights, but last night is when it hit me that I should stop the taking him to my bed thing, mainly because it was so early into the night.
So maybe I should blog, because this isn't really a question or request for advice...it's just me sharing...
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Hello all...I'm losing my mind tonight. I'm newly single, the ex-wife has moved out and moved far away (to Missouri! and I'm in Tampa), and I have my son, 2 and a half...So I'm all alone, and raising my son by myself. I don't really feel like I can go to anyone that I know with all of my feelings and thoughts regarding how isolated I feel, or all the other stuff I have as it relates to being alone...She moved out just before Christmas, and I've had my son with me since January 6...I've sent out some weekly updates to various family members (on both sides)...
So anyway, here I am, hoping for some support...
I find that it's easy to judge myself when comparing myself to someone else (my ex) who I think isn't doing such a good job, and makes me think I'm doing all right. But now when I have only myself to compare myself to, I find that I'm wanting. I want to be the best father I can be, so I know I have a lot of reading to do, etc, but still, I think talking to people is a good thing, too. Being social is very beneficial for both father and son...I feel a bit better writing this...Maybe I should blog, rather than write here? I need discussion, and interaction...
So anyway, here I am, hoping for some support...
I find that it's easy to judge myself when comparing myself to someone else (my ex) who I think isn't doing such a good job, and makes me think I'm doing all right. But now when I have only myself to compare myself to, I find that I'm wanting. I want to be the best father I can be, so I know I have a lot of reading to do, etc, but still, I think talking to people is a good thing, too. Being social is very beneficial for both father and son...I feel a bit better writing this...Maybe I should blog, rather than write here? I need discussion, and interaction...
Friday, January 25, 2008
David's Third Week
Things are going better this week for David. He's learned more
"command" words: mo'n (come on), he says "go!" when it's time for me
to go (this is usually when I'm telling him good-bye at Dot's house);
sit dair! (when he wants me to sit somewhere), or seat! Up! When
we're on our way to Dot's, or from. Up is off the road…he likes to
walk on the road when there's no cars, and as soon as he sees one he
wants to go UP! to get off the road. He actively looks for them now,
and loves it when he sees one because of the alarm that it creates.
He thinks it's great fun. He also likes to run to and from Dot's…
Today he's actually done a 'race': he puts his feet on a line in the
road as a starting line, and he does the "ready, set, go!" without
saying it exactly. And then he runs! It's very cute. He's
communicating so much more lately. More words are being said, and
they are more and more intelligible. Cars have become 'go-cars', and
just cars...
He's able to play by himself at home for longer periods, which is
good for me, as it gives me a few minutes -- enough that I am able to
give him proper energy, and I don't feel trapped by him. He loves to
'read a book'…this week we've been doing the Baby Animals picture
book, with him pointing to the animals, and me naming them. He
repeats the names of the animals, too, at least the ones he can say.
I wish I could find a book like that with the names of the animals in
French…We are also reading The Foot Book. I love it that the words
are short and repeated over and over…he's beginning to know "foot",
"feet", and "up" by sight. He's getting the book reading behaviors
down, too: left to right reading, turning the correct page…He says
"Down" but it sounds like "neer"…not sure why on that one.
A typical day begins with me getting him out of bed…sometimes he's
awake, and other times not. Either way, he wants me to turn on the
'ights' … lights with no l. So I turn on the light in his room, and
he wants to play for a few minutes, which I typically let him do.
Then we go and change his diaper (beepbeeer, he says) and put on his
clothes (cose) for the day…the other day it was actually warm enough
for shorts! We 'go for a walk' to Dot's, which he loves. I come to
get him between 5:15 and 5:45, and we walk home. He likes to get the
mail, but then he wants to throw it all away in the "Dthash" because
he can't distinguish junk mail and the stuff I need to keep, like
bills. I may have said before that I figured it's two-tenths of a
mile from my house to Dot's…so I'm walking about 1 mile every day,
and so is David. When it gets to be more light outside in the
evenings we'll go for longer walks.
When we get home, David plays, though sometimes he wants to go
through the house and turn on all the lights, or we figure out dinner…
He's decided lately that he wants Frosted Mini-Wheats for dinner…it's
a struggle because I usually want to give him more dinner type foods,
and he refuses to eat what I make…even things I know he likes, such
as tomatoes, and green beans, and fish. He asks for a "na-na" a lot,
and then over-stuffs his mouth so that he gags…I'm beginning to get
him not to over do it, and he's beginning to listen. He loves
goldfish, too. Sometimes he wants the TV on, other times he's okay
with it being off. (He lately is asking to watch the Care Bears. I
really don't know what prompted him to want to watch them, but there
it is.) It just depends. I'm okay with it either way. He's able to
give me space enough to cook dinner without a lot of interference, or
need for me to be close to him. We eat at the big, adult sized table,
though David lately likes to eat at the smaller, kid sized table,
too. Sometimes he goes between the two tables. He usually eats…it's
hard to get him to sit down and eat. He understands that "time out"
is a consequence of not following the rules, which helps in getting
him to do stuff, like sit down and eat. Any time he makes the
slightest bit of mess when he's eating, he wants to get a paper towel
to clean it up and then throw it in the dthash. He is a very messy
cereal eater, with milk going everywhere. I try to show him the
better way to hold the spoon (which he calls a book -- rhymes with
kook) but he won't have it! It will happen soon enough. He also won't
let me feed him cereal…he's independent, that one.
I give him a bath…which he likes. I figured that I just need to slow
way down on the hair washing, which is the hard part, because water
runs down no matter I do, and he doesn't like that feeling. It's hard
not to get soapy water in his eyes, too. … but he is more
cooperative; he stands up so I can scrub him down with a soapy rag…
and when he's done, he gets out, and I wrap him up with a towel, and
we play a game in the bathroom mirror where he hides behind my
shoulder and I ask, "Where's David?" and he comes out and we look in
the mirror and I say "There he is!" and we laugh. He could do this
for a while. We go in the living room and get his pajamas on, and
then back to the bathroom for brushing teeth ("eat!" he calls it, not
sure if it's toothbrush, or teeth, or something else related…) and
brushing of hair. I time all of this so that we start at 7:30 and are
done by 8. We then read a book or two, and sometimes the same book
twice, and then bed time. Lately he thinks it's funny to put his head
on the pillow and stick his butt up in the air and not lay down. Very
frustrating! It took about 3 nights for me to get him to stop doing
this…now he's back to normal cuteness of "jumping" down to a laying
position so he can go to sleep. One night I went to check on him at
about 11 PM, and I found him on the floor…I picked him up, and held
him for a while…until he did one of his very strong "points" where he
points at what he wants … so very strongly and quietly, he pointed at
the bed, and I lay him down so he could sleep.
Lastly…David's asthma has been acting up over the last few nights. He
takes his nebulizer like a champ. He coughs at night, too, and I've
discovered that if I leave the door to his room closed, he coughs. If
I leave it open, he doesn't cough. At some point I'll figure out what
is doing that…sooner than later, I hope. Then again, maybe it has to
do with the cold in general...He yells at me to put the nebulizer
back in its spot by the TV when we're done with it. "BACK! BACK!" he
says...and points.
I think about composing this letter each day as it goes...He's
changing so much, it's hard to catalog everything, and there's so
much worth reporting. Last weekend we were at the grocery store to
buy a few things, and I let him have a plum tomato...we washed it
off, and then he looked at it for a minute, and took a big chomp out
of it. And then he took another bite or two, eating about half of it.
I was very happy with this. We went to the park, and he can go on the
big slide by himself (the 'weee'). We played there for a while. He's
getting to where he can almost play with other little kids. There was
a little girl that he played in the dirt with for a bit...her parents
were pretty cool. The two kids just inhabited the same space, and
didn't interact with each other. They shared the going up the slide
ladder pretty well. But they did kind of keep the same space,
following each other a bit...it didn't last long, but still...
Amanda and I have decided to try to have a weekly phone conversation
so that David can hear Amanda's and Colleen's voices, and I'd like to
have a webcam for Amanda with sound so that he can interact with her
over the internet. I have a webcam built in to my computer...
I hope you've had a good week, and the next one is better.
"command" words: mo'n (come on), he says "go!" when it's time for me
to go (this is usually when I'm telling him good-bye at Dot's house);
sit dair! (when he wants me to sit somewhere), or seat! Up! When
we're on our way to Dot's, or from. Up is off the road…he likes to
walk on the road when there's no cars, and as soon as he sees one he
wants to go UP! to get off the road. He actively looks for them now,
and loves it when he sees one because of the alarm that it creates.
He thinks it's great fun. He also likes to run to and from Dot's…
Today he's actually done a 'race': he puts his feet on a line in the
road as a starting line, and he does the "ready, set, go!" without
saying it exactly. And then he runs! It's very cute. He's
communicating so much more lately. More words are being said, and
they are more and more intelligible. Cars have become 'go-cars', and
just cars...
He's able to play by himself at home for longer periods, which is
good for me, as it gives me a few minutes -- enough that I am able to
give him proper energy, and I don't feel trapped by him. He loves to
'read a book'…this week we've been doing the Baby Animals picture
book, with him pointing to the animals, and me naming them. He
repeats the names of the animals, too, at least the ones he can say.
I wish I could find a book like that with the names of the animals in
French…We are also reading The Foot Book. I love it that the words
are short and repeated over and over…he's beginning to know "foot",
"feet", and "up" by sight. He's getting the book reading behaviors
down, too: left to right reading, turning the correct page…He says
"Down" but it sounds like "neer"…not sure why on that one.
A typical day begins with me getting him out of bed…sometimes he's
awake, and other times not. Either way, he wants me to turn on the
'ights' … lights with no l. So I turn on the light in his room, and
he wants to play for a few minutes, which I typically let him do.
Then we go and change his diaper (beepbeeer, he says) and put on his
clothes (cose) for the day…the other day it was actually warm enough
for shorts! We 'go for a walk' to Dot's, which he loves. I come to
get him between 5:15 and 5:45, and we walk home. He likes to get the
mail, but then he wants to throw it all away in the "Dthash" because
he can't distinguish junk mail and the stuff I need to keep, like
bills. I may have said before that I figured it's two-tenths of a
mile from my house to Dot's…so I'm walking about 1 mile every day,
and so is David. When it gets to be more light outside in the
evenings we'll go for longer walks.
When we get home, David plays, though sometimes he wants to go
through the house and turn on all the lights, or we figure out dinner…
He's decided lately that he wants Frosted Mini-Wheats for dinner…it's
a struggle because I usually want to give him more dinner type foods,
and he refuses to eat what I make…even things I know he likes, such
as tomatoes, and green beans, and fish. He asks for a "na-na" a lot,
and then over-stuffs his mouth so that he gags…I'm beginning to get
him not to over do it, and he's beginning to listen. He loves
goldfish, too. Sometimes he wants the TV on, other times he's okay
with it being off. (He lately is asking to watch the Care Bears. I
really don't know what prompted him to want to watch them, but there
it is.) It just depends. I'm okay with it either way. He's able to
give me space enough to cook dinner without a lot of interference, or
need for me to be close to him. We eat at the big, adult sized table,
though David lately likes to eat at the smaller, kid sized table,
too. Sometimes he goes between the two tables. He usually eats…it's
hard to get him to sit down and eat. He understands that "time out"
is a consequence of not following the rules, which helps in getting
him to do stuff, like sit down and eat. Any time he makes the
slightest bit of mess when he's eating, he wants to get a paper towel
to clean it up and then throw it in the dthash. He is a very messy
cereal eater, with milk going everywhere. I try to show him the
better way to hold the spoon (which he calls a book -- rhymes with
kook) but he won't have it! It will happen soon enough. He also won't
let me feed him cereal…he's independent, that one.
I give him a bath…which he likes. I figured that I just need to slow
way down on the hair washing, which is the hard part, because water
runs down no matter I do, and he doesn't like that feeling. It's hard
not to get soapy water in his eyes, too. … but he is more
cooperative; he stands up so I can scrub him down with a soapy rag…
and when he's done, he gets out, and I wrap him up with a towel, and
we play a game in the bathroom mirror where he hides behind my
shoulder and I ask, "Where's David?" and he comes out and we look in
the mirror and I say "There he is!" and we laugh. He could do this
for a while. We go in the living room and get his pajamas on, and
then back to the bathroom for brushing teeth ("eat!" he calls it, not
sure if it's toothbrush, or teeth, or something else related…) and
brushing of hair. I time all of this so that we start at 7:30 and are
done by 8. We then read a book or two, and sometimes the same book
twice, and then bed time. Lately he thinks it's funny to put his head
on the pillow and stick his butt up in the air and not lay down. Very
frustrating! It took about 3 nights for me to get him to stop doing
this…now he's back to normal cuteness of "jumping" down to a laying
position so he can go to sleep. One night I went to check on him at
about 11 PM, and I found him on the floor…I picked him up, and held
him for a while…until he did one of his very strong "points" where he
points at what he wants … so very strongly and quietly, he pointed at
the bed, and I lay him down so he could sleep.
Lastly…David's asthma has been acting up over the last few nights. He
takes his nebulizer like a champ. He coughs at night, too, and I've
discovered that if I leave the door to his room closed, he coughs. If
I leave it open, he doesn't cough. At some point I'll figure out what
is doing that…sooner than later, I hope. Then again, maybe it has to
do with the cold in general...He yells at me to put the nebulizer
back in its spot by the TV when we're done with it. "BACK! BACK!" he
says...and points.
I think about composing this letter each day as it goes...He's
changing so much, it's hard to catalog everything, and there's so
much worth reporting. Last weekend we were at the grocery store to
buy a few things, and I let him have a plum tomato...we washed it
off, and then he looked at it for a minute, and took a big chomp out
of it. And then he took another bite or two, eating about half of it.
I was very happy with this. We went to the park, and he can go on the
big slide by himself (the 'weee'). We played there for a while. He's
getting to where he can almost play with other little kids. There was
a little girl that he played in the dirt with for a bit...her parents
were pretty cool. The two kids just inhabited the same space, and
didn't interact with each other. They shared the going up the slide
ladder pretty well. But they did kind of keep the same space,
following each other a bit...it didn't last long, but still...
Amanda and I have decided to try to have a weekly phone conversation
so that David can hear Amanda's and Colleen's voices, and I'd like to
have a webcam for Amanda with sound so that he can interact with her
over the internet. I have a webcam built in to my computer...
I hope you've had a good week, and the next one is better.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
David's Second Week
Hello again...
Not sure how many more of these I'll send, but I will make an effort from time to time...If you have anything to say, please let me know.
David has had a good week. My sister came over Saturday with Jared and Avery, my neice and nephew, and they spent a good part of the day...we had elbow macaroni and meatsauce, and David just ate it up! He thought it was great!
Sunday we spent some time at my mom's house. David isn't a big meat eater, I'm finding. We had a roast and some rice with potatoes, and he wasn't much on the meat, in spite of how tender it was. He didn't really eat chicken, like I may have mentioned last week. Tonight we had quinoa with cut tomatoes and avacadoes...he loved that, too.
His meal of choice is yogurt, banana, Crispix cereal, and goldfish crackers. I have to get better at feeding him before he realizes he's hungry. Usually we get home, and he doesn't allow me to leave him for even a minute...so it's hard to make something, and even if I have leftovers to throw in the microwave, he loudly objects. But when it's done and I get to feed him, he eats well. He's getting better at sitting at the table, though we have our moments of me making sure he stays there. I'm finding that time out, followed by some other activity usually resets his "sit at the table" clock, and he will be able to finish. And me, too!
His vocabulary is growing...he is making a transition between "beep!" for cars, and saying the word "car"...I'm trying to make the distinction between car and truck, since there are so many of them, but it will be a while, I'm sure. He also said something else that floored me. He told me that Mimi (my mom) re-covered the two chairs that I have that go with the table in the dining area. He also did something else that blew me away...he was eating a cracker, and because of the way he took a bite out of it, it looked like a slide, and he said so: (he calls slides "wee") "look at the wee, daddy" in baby language. It was awesome. He has an imagination!
I'm sure there's things in here that I've missed...I wish I could relate and relay everything that happens...David has learned to stall by having me read a book to him. I think I'll take it. We play a game in Colleen's old room where I stand him on the window sill, and as I'm holding him he pushes off the window and I act like it's an exaggerated push that he does and I spin around, and move around...and then he points at the other window, and we do it again. It's lots of fun.
The hardest thing for me is one day I needed to have him in his room just for a minute, and the way he screamed and cried was worse than I've seen...he absolutely does not want me to leave his sight at any point. I'm glad he does go to bed well.
Tomorrow, it's going to be rainy and wet, so no park...He's gotten over his cough, and has a doctor appt on Monday...routine is good...and little interruptions aren't always bad.
PS
Here's a few things, that I think are important, but I don't know how I missed them: David says 'piece' (please) when he wants something really bad. It's so cute! It took me a day or two to figure that one out. It seems so obvious now, but when he started saying I wondered about his wanting of a 'piece' of something...Thursday night he asked me to put on the SpongeBob pajamas that I inhereted from my sister, by saying "BunmBob dis! Piece!?" (pointing to his pants)...so I put them on him, and he was happy! And the matching shirt, of course.
Lately, I'm reminded that I speak some French, and that I should be trying to speak French to him. I think that it would confuse him since he's just learning English. I tried tonight with a picture book of animals, and I was saying the animal names in French, but he didn't respond right away when I called a cow by its French name...so I caved and said it in English. It would be easier if I spoke French all the time, or fluently.
Another important thing is that I'm trying to introduce tooth-brushing into his routine. The problem is that he likes it so much that he wants to take time to brush his teeth a lot. And he likes toothpaste, too, but I don't give him enough to hurt anything, and I actually brush his teeth for him, but he takes the thing and brushes his own teeth. Not well, but he's getting better.
And then there's potty training. The other day I had him sit on a little kids potty my mom brought me, and he soiled his diaper I realized later. If only I had taken the thing off first! So that's a challenge. Getting him to sit on the pot was tough enough, but getting him to take off his pants is part II of the challenge. I'm working on that. I know that Dot (his regular day-care baby sitter) is working on potty training, too. He doesn't like the potty, no he says so: No po-ye! Not sure why he doesn't like it. He'll get over that, too, I think.
Not sure how many more of these I'll send, but I will make an effort from time to time...If you have anything to say, please let me know.
David has had a good week. My sister came over Saturday with Jared and Avery, my neice and nephew, and they spent a good part of the day...we had elbow macaroni and meatsauce, and David just ate it up! He thought it was great!
Sunday we spent some time at my mom's house. David isn't a big meat eater, I'm finding. We had a roast and some rice with potatoes, and he wasn't much on the meat, in spite of how tender it was. He didn't really eat chicken, like I may have mentioned last week. Tonight we had quinoa with cut tomatoes and avacadoes...he loved that, too.
His meal of choice is yogurt, banana, Crispix cereal, and goldfish crackers. I have to get better at feeding him before he realizes he's hungry. Usually we get home, and he doesn't allow me to leave him for even a minute...so it's hard to make something, and even if I have leftovers to throw in the microwave, he loudly objects. But when it's done and I get to feed him, he eats well. He's getting better at sitting at the table, though we have our moments of me making sure he stays there. I'm finding that time out, followed by some other activity usually resets his "sit at the table" clock, and he will be able to finish. And me, too!
His vocabulary is growing...he is making a transition between "beep!" for cars, and saying the word "car"...I'm trying to make the distinction between car and truck, since there are so many of them, but it will be a while, I'm sure. He also said something else that floored me. He told me that Mimi (my mom) re-covered the two chairs that I have that go with the table in the dining area. He also did something else that blew me away...he was eating a cracker, and because of the way he took a bite out of it, it looked like a slide, and he said so: (he calls slides "wee") "look at the wee, daddy" in baby language. It was awesome. He has an imagination!
I'm sure there's things in here that I've missed...I wish I could relate and relay everything that happens...David has learned to stall by having me read a book to him. I think I'll take it. We play a game in Colleen's old room where I stand him on the window sill, and as I'm holding him he pushes off the window and I act like it's an exaggerated push that he does and I spin around, and move around...and then he points at the other window, and we do it again. It's lots of fun.
The hardest thing for me is one day I needed to have him in his room just for a minute, and the way he screamed and cried was worse than I've seen...he absolutely does not want me to leave his sight at any point. I'm glad he does go to bed well.
Tomorrow, it's going to be rainy and wet, so no park...He's gotten over his cough, and has a doctor appt on Monday...routine is good...and little interruptions aren't always bad.
PS
Here's a few things, that I think are important, but I don't know how I missed them: David says 'piece' (please) when he wants something really bad. It's so cute! It took me a day or two to figure that one out. It seems so obvious now, but when he started saying I wondered about his wanting of a 'piece' of something...Thursday night he asked me to put on the SpongeBob pajamas that I inhereted from my sister, by saying "BunmBob dis! Piece!?" (pointing to his pants)...so I put them on him, and he was happy! And the matching shirt, of course.
Lately, I'm reminded that I speak some French, and that I should be trying to speak French to him. I think that it would confuse him since he's just learning English. I tried tonight with a picture book of animals, and I was saying the animal names in French, but he didn't respond right away when I called a cow by its French name...so I caved and said it in English. It would be easier if I spoke French all the time, or fluently.
Another important thing is that I'm trying to introduce tooth-brushing into his routine. The problem is that he likes it so much that he wants to take time to brush his teeth a lot. And he likes toothpaste, too, but I don't give him enough to hurt anything, and I actually brush his teeth for him, but he takes the thing and brushes his own teeth. Not well, but he's getting better.
And then there's potty training. The other day I had him sit on a little kids potty my mom brought me, and he soiled his diaper I realized later. If only I had taken the thing off first! So that's a challenge. Getting him to sit on the pot was tough enough, but getting him to take off his pants is part II of the challenge. I'm working on that. I know that Dot (his regular day-care baby sitter) is working on potty training, too. He doesn't like the potty, no he says so: No po-ye! Not sure why he doesn't like it. He'll get over that, too, I think.
Friday, January 11, 2008
First Week with David
Hey Everyone...
I'm sending this out because I feel bad that Amanda is missing David, and it's important to do some kind of review to say what's going on with him, and with he and I.
I've had him go to bed each night at 8, and before he lays down we "read a book" ...at this point, it's all about him pointing at the characters in the books, like Winnie the Pooh, but I read to him too, and show him how to turn the pages... David looks forward to that time of night now, and even has me read a book to him at other times, even as soon as we get home, or wake up in the morning. He sleeps in a toddler bed now. He's figured out how to keep himself covered with a blanket, as the first couple of nights he'd wake up cold, usually early in the morning, but now he sleeps until about 7, and is warm. I put him in pajamas at night now, as well, as part of our routine.
I give him a bath about every other day, which he hates. I'm still working to figure out how to make it not so bad for him.
His having a routine is extremely important to me, and will build his future. We try to sit together at the table to eat...He surprised me tonight by asking to eat the yellow rice I was eating, that I didn't think he'd eat. He ate the green beans and the ham and cheese that I set for him, too. He had a really good meal. He also is learning how to feed himself. I had a disaster in making some food on Thursday, so he asked for cereal, and fruit, and I gave him some yogurt. He did fine for himself. Lately he's asking me for water, and he calls orange juice "gold juice"...I imagine because it's the same color as goldfish crackers, which he also likes.
He is also beginning to name the different letters. He has a wooden board with wooden letters, and he can name more of them, rather than calling all of them "D". He is also getting better at imitating me when I name other things. He's better able to make the sounds, and repeat what I tell him.
He and I walk to Dot's, the baby sitter, which is two blocks away. When cars come close, I tell him a car's coming, and he gets out of the road "UP!" because it's up from the road about a foot. He likes to walk in the road, but listens very well when I tell him to get out of the road. And he won't let my hand go when we walk. It's so cute. He makes sure to have a firm grasp before we walk out the door. I also walk him to Dot's in the morning. The mornings have been cool, about 60 or so. I've been dressing him in pants, and a short sleeve shirt, and then he wears his red jacket, which keeps him warm on the way, and makes him very visible. :-)
We take some time to play in the evenings, along with all the other stuff. I don't get computer time until after he goes to bed. This weekend will see some laundry. He's really good about cleaning up after himself, too. He got out one of his Christmas presents, a bowling set -- pins and ball, all light plastic -- and we had a grand time settin them up, and him knocking them down. When I have to put them back up he says "Fix this"...it's so cute. After I was done putting them up for the 20th time, I told him it's time to put them away, and he put them away! It was great. He did it with such vigor, in fact, that he broke a sweat. And he wouldn't let me help him, either. I could just offer praise. :-)
So that's my first week. The earlier part of the week is a blur...I got him from Matt and Virginia on Sunday night. Monday the thought was "This is the first day of the rest of your life"...what a thought. I made chicken for David at one point, but he wouldn't eat it, so I mixed it with peas, and he ate that. I like that he prefers vegetables.
He also opened up his presents from Nancy, Frank, and Marissa on Monday. He really liked them. "Beeps" he calls the cars. He really like playing with them. When we walk to and from Dot's he points out the cars, sometimes calling them cars, and sometimes beeps. It's so cute. I love walking with him. He's such a joy. The cars never stop being new to him.
Last thing. He's had a cough since he came back. I've been giving the generic CVS "Triacting" medicine at night for his coughing and runny nose. And it helps. I've also begun to give him nebulizer treatments...he must know he's having trouble breathing from his asthma, since he only put up a token struggle. It's helped a lot with his cough. He's doing better, and getting over his cough.
Rusty
PS
I thought of a few more things. For the first couple of days he'd have me sit on the couch, with him on my lap, and he wouldn't let me get up for anything, for over an hour. So I'd watch Teletubbies and Barney with him. I called Frank/Nancy on Tuesday to say Thank You for the Christmas gifts for David, and Frank wasn't very talkative. Maybe he'll change his tune for me sending these out, or just killing him with kindness. Nancy is better at talking to me than Frank was.
David doesn't ask for his mother, or his sister. He must know something is going on, or has happened. He doesn't try to go in her room, and the only time he says anything that sounds like sissy is when we pass the neighbor's house where Colleen used to play. That bothers me. And I don't know what to do about it.
I also don't know what to do about Amanda...I know he'll cry if he hears her voice...okay, I don't know that. He did that when he was away from me and heard my voice. How can I help him develop a relationship with her when she's so far away? I want to ask Frank to buy her a webcam so she can talk to him, and he can see her...but I don't know what good that would do. Maybe it's better that he forget her...but that's just as bad.
PPS
And David is asking for water, rather than juice or milk...All good things.
I'm sending this out because I feel bad that Amanda is missing David, and it's important to do some kind of review to say what's going on with him, and with he and I.
I've had him go to bed each night at 8, and before he lays down we "read a book" ...at this point, it's all about him pointing at the characters in the books, like Winnie the Pooh, but I read to him too, and show him how to turn the pages... David looks forward to that time of night now, and even has me read a book to him at other times, even as soon as we get home, or wake up in the morning. He sleeps in a toddler bed now. He's figured out how to keep himself covered with a blanket, as the first couple of nights he'd wake up cold, usually early in the morning, but now he sleeps until about 7, and is warm. I put him in pajamas at night now, as well, as part of our routine.
I give him a bath about every other day, which he hates. I'm still working to figure out how to make it not so bad for him.
His having a routine is extremely important to me, and will build his future. We try to sit together at the table to eat...He surprised me tonight by asking to eat the yellow rice I was eating, that I didn't think he'd eat. He ate the green beans and the ham and cheese that I set for him, too. He had a really good meal. He also is learning how to feed himself. I had a disaster in making some food on Thursday, so he asked for cereal, and fruit, and I gave him some yogurt. He did fine for himself. Lately he's asking me for water, and he calls orange juice "gold juice"...I imagine because it's the same color as goldfish crackers, which he also likes.
He is also beginning to name the different letters. He has a wooden board with wooden letters, and he can name more of them, rather than calling all of them "D". He is also getting better at imitating me when I name other things. He's better able to make the sounds, and repeat what I tell him.
He and I walk to Dot's, the baby sitter, which is two blocks away. When cars come close, I tell him a car's coming, and he gets out of the road "UP!" because it's up from the road about a foot. He likes to walk in the road, but listens very well when I tell him to get out of the road. And he won't let my hand go when we walk. It's so cute. He makes sure to have a firm grasp before we walk out the door. I also walk him to Dot's in the morning. The mornings have been cool, about 60 or so. I've been dressing him in pants, and a short sleeve shirt, and then he wears his red jacket, which keeps him warm on the way, and makes him very visible. :-)
We take some time to play in the evenings, along with all the other stuff. I don't get computer time until after he goes to bed. This weekend will see some laundry. He's really good about cleaning up after himself, too. He got out one of his Christmas presents, a bowling set -- pins and ball, all light plastic -- and we had a grand time settin them up, and him knocking them down. When I have to put them back up he says "Fix this"...it's so cute. After I was done putting them up for the 20th time, I told him it's time to put them away, and he put them away! It was great. He did it with such vigor, in fact, that he broke a sweat. And he wouldn't let me help him, either. I could just offer praise. :-)
So that's my first week. The earlier part of the week is a blur...I got him from Matt and Virginia on Sunday night. Monday the thought was "This is the first day of the rest of your life"...what a thought. I made chicken for David at one point, but he wouldn't eat it, so I mixed it with peas, and he ate that. I like that he prefers vegetables.
He also opened up his presents from Nancy, Frank, and Marissa on Monday. He really liked them. "Beeps" he calls the cars. He really like playing with them. When we walk to and from Dot's he points out the cars, sometimes calling them cars, and sometimes beeps. It's so cute. I love walking with him. He's such a joy. The cars never stop being new to him.
Last thing. He's had a cough since he came back. I've been giving the generic CVS "Triacting" medicine at night for his coughing and runny nose. And it helps. I've also begun to give him nebulizer treatments...he must know he's having trouble breathing from his asthma, since he only put up a token struggle. It's helped a lot with his cough. He's doing better, and getting over his cough.
Rusty
PS
I thought of a few more things. For the first couple of days he'd have me sit on the couch, with him on my lap, and he wouldn't let me get up for anything, for over an hour. So I'd watch Teletubbies and Barney with him. I called Frank/Nancy on Tuesday to say Thank You for the Christmas gifts for David, and Frank wasn't very talkative. Maybe he'll change his tune for me sending these out, or just killing him with kindness. Nancy is better at talking to me than Frank was.
David doesn't ask for his mother, or his sister. He must know something is going on, or has happened. He doesn't try to go in her room, and the only time he says anything that sounds like sissy is when we pass the neighbor's house where Colleen used to play. That bothers me. And I don't know what to do about it.
I also don't know what to do about Amanda...I know he'll cry if he hears her voice...okay, I don't know that. He did that when he was away from me and heard my voice. How can I help him develop a relationship with her when she's so far away? I want to ask Frank to buy her a webcam so she can talk to him, and he can see her...but I don't know what good that would do. Maybe it's better that he forget her...but that's just as bad.
PPS
And David is asking for water, rather than juice or milk...All good things.
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